1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for administrating print job data. The present invention more particularly relates to a printer driver to be mounted on a host apparatus and a printer which processes print job data produced by the printer driver.
2. Description of the Related Art
To utilize a printer, a host apparatus generally requires a printer driver (a printer control program). Upon receiving application data from an application program, the printer driver converts the application data into print job data (print command) which is intrinsic to the printer and outputs the print job data to the printer. Upon receiving the print job data, the printer spools and interprets the print job data and produces bit map data and realizes a print on a printing paper.
Recently, a network-usable-type printer which is connected to a LAN constructed by Ethernet or the like and is commonly used by a plurality of host apparatuses has been popularly used. The host apparatus executes a network communication with the printer in accordance with a given network protocol and transmits the print job data outputted from the printer driver into the printer. The network protocol for making the host apparatus transmit the print job data to the printer includes, for example, a LPR protocol mounted on a TCP/IP.
In the printer driver, when information on the application data which is to be printed is written in the print job data, the printer can obtain the information only at a stage after interpreting the print job data for printing processing. Accordingly, there has been a drawback that the host apparatus cannot execute an administration of the print job data such as the acquisition of the printing condition in terms of the print job data being spooled in the inside of the printer or the print job data waiting for the processing or the canceling of the printing processing.
To avoid such drawbacks, there has been proposed a method which expands the protocol of the network and supplies the print job information into the protocol. However, the provision of a new print system which alters the existing platform and administrates the print job data which the host apparatus transmitted to the printer is costly and hence unrealistic.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a print system which can administrate print job data without requiring a large change of the existing platform before the print job data is interpreted for the print processing after the print job data is supplied to a printer.
The gist of the present invention lies in that a printer driver embeds job administration information into print job data at the time of producing the print job data and hence, a printer which receives the print job data extracts the job administration information from the print job data at a stage of spooling the print job data into a hard disc or the like and administration of the print job data can be executed based on the job administration information. Due to such a constitution, even before the print job data is interpreted for print processing, a host apparatus which has obtained the job administration information can individually administrate the print job data supplied to the printers based on the job administration information.
That is, the printer according to the present invention includes first reception means which receives print job data including job administration information, extracting means which extracts the job administration information from the print job data received by the first reception means, memory means which stores the print job data received by the first reception means, interpretive means which produces bit map data based on the print job data read out from the memory means, printing executing means which executes printing based on the bit map data which is produced by the interpretive means, and job administration means which administrates the print job data stored by the memory means based on the job administration information extracted by the extracting means.
Here, the printer may be further provided with second reception means which receives a job administration request transmitted from the host apparatus and the job administration means transmits a response to the job administration request to the host apparatus based on the job administration information. This job administration request is, for example, an inquiry request of the job status or a cancellation request of specific print job data.
The job administration means is characterized in that a state that the print job data is received by the first reception means and is outputted to the memory means (during writing), a state that the print job data is stored in the memory means (already written) or a state that the print job data is read out from the memory means (already read out) or the like is transmitted to the host apparatus as the job state.
Further, in the print control method according to the present invention which comprises a receiving step for receiving print job data which is transmitted from a host apparatus and includes job administration information, an extracting step for extracting the job administration information from the print job data received by the receiving step, a storing step for outputting the print job data received by the receiving step into given memory means, an interpreting step for producing bit map data based on the print job data read out from the memory means, and a printing step for executing printing based on the bit map data produced by the interpreting step, the print control method further includes an administrating step in which before the print job data is read out from the memory means in the interpreting step, the print job data is administrated based on the job administration information extracted by executing the extracting step.
Further, the present invention is realized as a program executed by a controller of a printer and a recording medium which records the program. The recording medium includes, for example, a memory such as a RAM or a ROM in addition to a hard disc (HD), a DVD-RAM, a flexible disc (FD) and a CD-ROM and the like. Further, the printer includes, for example, a so-called microcomputer or the like which executes given processing by interpreting the program using a so-called central processing unit such as a CPU or a MPU. The program may be realized as a program which has a function of calling a function realized by a basic program such as an operating system.
Still further, the present invention is constituted by a print system which is comprised of a host apparatus and a printer. Here, the host apparatus comprises user interface means which displays a given input request screen and receives given job administration information from a user, producing means which produces print job data based on the received job administration information and application data which constitutes a printing object, first transmitting means which transmits the produced print job data to the printer, and second transmitting means which transmits the job administration request to the printer. Further, the printer includes first receiving means which receives the print job data transmitted from the host apparatus, extracting means which extracts the job administration information from the received print job data, memory means which stores the received print job data, interpretive means which produces bit map data based on the print job data read out from the memory means, printing executing means which executes printing based on the bit map data produced by the interpretive means, and job administration means which administrates the print job data stored in the memory means based on the job administration information.
According to the present invention, in the state that the print job data supplied to the printer is spooled, the administration of the print job data becomes possible.
Further, according to the present invention, since the print driver supplies the job administration information as additional data, even when a plurality of communication interfaces (including a network protocol) are provided, it is unnecessary to define the transaction of job administration information for each communication interface and the transaction can be processed unitarily.
In this specification, means does not simply imply physical means but includes a case where a function that the means has is realized by software. Further, a function that single means has may be realized by two or more physical means, or functions of two or more than two means may be realized by single physical means.